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The Shoe People
The Shoe People was created by James Driscoll, who got the inspiration for the show from noticing that the style and appearance of peoples shoes told you about their owners personalities. He then wondered what stories these shoes could tell about themselves when they were new and had gradually worn out. He then started to come up with the characters for the stories. One of the characters - Trampy is based in James Driscoll's grandfather, who was a kind generous man. Once the stories were written, he needed someone to illustrate the stories and he eventually found Rob Lee, who was better known for drawing Superted. James then went around a number of people in the publishing world with his ideas and they were received well, but no one was willing to produce any Shoe People books. Eventually he talked to a local printer about producing some books himself. The printer gave him numerous prices depending on the quantity made. The more books you made, the cheaper it was, but jokingly the printer said if he made half a million books they would be really cheap. So to the shock of the printer, James took him up on having half a million books made, across 8 titles. Later on he met with Peter Elias Jones who was head of children's TV for Harlech TV. He liked the ideas, and urged him put the Shoe People on TV and to get an animated pilot created, but he would need an animation studio to produce it for him. He eventually found a studio called Fairwater Films, where he told the if they did the pilot and didn't rip him off, and the series was taken up, then he would use them to do the whole series. They agreed and did it at cost price. The series was taken up, so he upheld his side of the bargain. After a chance encounter, Justin Hayward the guitarist for the 'Moody Blues', agreed to write and perform the Theme Tune to the show. Also Philip Whitchurch narrated the series. In April 1987, the Shoe People was first broadcast on TV-AM, a breakfast show made by the ITV Channel in the UK. The Shoe People went on to be broadcast in 62 countries around the world. It was the first series from the West to be shown in the former Soviet Union and became so popular there, that they sold over 25 million Shoe People books! They couldn't afford to pay for the show, so James Driscoll, the creator of the show, decided to give it to them for free. Because of this act, he was even introduced to the leader of the Soviet Union - Mikayal Gorbachov. Also they couldn't afford the paper to produce the books, so he agreed to supply the paper for the first 8 million books, which sold out days later when they were published. The show went on to win the Gold Award at the International Film and Television Festival of New York in November 1987, in the Best Animation Category & it was nominated for a BAFTA in 1988. The characters have also been used in numerous fundraising campaigns